The modern age of HR began during the industrial age, when unions were gaining power and employers had to start answering to their employees. That was in the early 20th century, while we respect originals, we hope you’re not still operating like an originalist.

So, what age of HR is your department operating in? Take our quiz, and score your department at the end. Good luck!

1. How do you recruit employees?

a. I hang up posters all around town and call the local newspaper to post an ad.

b. I reach out to people on my Rolodex and use virtual job boards

c. I post on virtual job boards and recruit at networking events

d. I use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that posts jobs with one click to all the places my candidates will be, including social media. We also encourage lots of networking among our employees.

2. How do you store employee information?

a. In a massive filing cabinet or not at all.

b. On a floppy disk or a snazzy USB drive.

c. On our company network.

d. On the cloud, where it’s backed up, easily accessible and protected by secure infrastructure.

3. What does it take for a candidate to complete your application process?

a. a typewriter or a stamp.

b. A trip to Kinkos to use their printer and “professional”-grade resume paper.

c. An Internet connection, a desktop or laptop (to make the time-consuming resume and cover letter easier to deal with) and follow-up calls or emails to make sure you received their submission.

d. An Internet connection and any type of device – phone, tablet, laptop or desktop – and a few minutes. No need for follow-ups, because your ATS is automated to do it for you.

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4. How often do employees come to you about issues they should be able to troubleshoot on their own?

a. Always. How else would they know anything?

b. Pretty much always. No one likes to dig through our huge employee handbook, and it’s not updated so it can be hard to get the right answer.

c. More than I’d prefer, even though I’ve posted things all over the company Intranet and send tons of emails.

d. Sometimes, but it’s OK because I can direct them to their one-stop employee portal.

5. How well do you use social recruiting?

a. I’m sorry, what?

b. In-person networking is an important part of our recruiting.

c. We leverage LinkedIn.

d. Great, we get tons of passive candidates via our social media channels. I love the feeling of landing a new employee when they weren’t even actively searching for new jobs.

6. Our onboarding policy includes:

a. Onboarding? We expect employees to know what they’re doing if they’re hired.

b. Job role training and a bunch of HR paperwork.

c. Required group time for video education about things like dress codes and harassment.

d. A 12-month long program that prepares new employees to feel empowered, knowledgeable and in control of their learning opportunities through an easily accessible and trackable system.

7. In order to track employee performance, we:

a. Track it? If they aren’t doing their job, they’re out of here.

b. Have annual reviews that are typed up, printed and stored with their other important papers.

c. Have annual reviews and summarize it onto a form saved on our network.

d. Have several check-ins a year. We ask targeted questions that can be measured, and keep the information in employee files on the cloud, where we can see changes over time and make strategic decisions based on actual performance.

8. What does payroll look like in your department?

a. It’s the worst! It’s hard to be accurate and on-time.

b. A little hectic. I’m always worried the printer will shell out when we’re printing pay stubs.

c. It’s a headache. Direct deposit should be easy, but I’m constantly getting errors about bank accounts or complaints from employees about checks being wrong or late.

d. Pretty easy. It’s automated and the software is automatically updated – with no downtime for us – with changes in taxes or employee codes. Employees input and update their own personal information.

9. How do employees track their time and attendance at work?

a. Employees show up, or they’re not invited back.

b. We use a physical punch card.

c. They log into our software and punch in.

d. Employees can log onto our attendance tracker via any device, mobile or desktop. If they’re on-site, our app tracks employee time and GPS location in real-time. The user-friendly software is cloud-based and can be accessed from any device and synced with any payroll system.

10. How is the Affordable Care Act integrated into your HR duties?

a. A lot of 1094 and 1095 form printing, data entry and envelope stuffing.

b. It’s a huge pain to report everything to the IRS.

c. We keep up OK with our computer systems, but it takes up a ton of time to stay on top of new ACA regulations.

d. Our cloud-based solution saves us a lot of time by integrating all our employee data to produce and send all 1094 and 1095 reporting to employees and the IRS. The software is always up to date with the newest ACA regulations.

Answers:

Mostly A’s:

Pre-Internet: With all the regulations related to hiring and evaluating candidates, paper applications are more than inconvenient, they’re a liability. And what about payroll? Still issuing a printed check every couple of weeks and keeping track in a ledger? There’s a more efficient HR world waiting for you with an easy-to-use and comprehensive software.

Mostly B’s:

The ’90s: Your HR department, like, totally made the tech leap … a couple of decades ago. If Excel formulas and fights with candidates about faxing in paperwork (who has a fax machine readily accessible?!) are part of your everyday HR life, you should know there’s an easier way. A smart HR system will eliminate bulk manual entries and create an all-in-one space for the employee journey from hire to retire, as well as benefits management and payroll.

Mostly C’s:

The 2000s: Your HR department is using technology, but there’s still a lot of data input, updating, security patches and more. The difference between where you are and where you could be is the difference between ordering your DVDs on Netflix (popular in 2005) and streaming your content – seemed pretty good until you heard about streaming! Efficiency in technology is within your grasp.

Mostly D’s:

In the Clouds: Congratulations, your HR department sounds like it’s operating at 2019 levels. You sound like someone we know… in fact, you sound like our customers! Did you know we recently added:

  • Core HR
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Processing
  • Time & Attendance
  • OSHA Training

Contact us today for a free demo or HR assessment.